Cheerleaders and silver-liners and ignorami! Oh, my!

03-10-2009

No… the International Olympic Committee (IOC) wasn’t about to give President Obama his wish of the 2016 Summer Olympics for Chicago despite his charm, great popularity in much of the world, and a very strong rationale that the bid for the Games was part of America’s re-engagement with the international community, after the very inhospitable atmosphere which was created by our last presidential nutcase: George W. Bush.

In fact, the city of Chicago did not make the medal round; with Tokyo receiving bronze for its bid, and Rio de Janeiro getting the gold over Madrid’s silver. Logically, it was too compelling not to make the South American continent wait any longer than 2016 CE to receive the Olympic torch. Madrid might have been the optimal choice, given its rivalry – not just in soccer but every aspect of civic, cultural and political life – with its Iberian Peninsula neighbor, Barcelona, after that incredible spectacle the Catalans offered to the world during the 1992 Summer Olympics games… a prelude to what Beijing would do in 2008. But Rio was chosen and, in all fairness, deservingly so. And no matter how disappointed some Chicagoans might be, including the Obamas, they may have earned an economic victory to soothe this so called Olympic defeat. To that end, they may wish to ask the poor Athenians who are and will continue paying for the 2004 Games!

Obama’s more sanguinary political enemies, most displaying racial overtones, are now trying to give an added meaning to the word Olympic in the newest headline: Obama’s Olympic defeat. This new meaning would make the new adjective not sports-related, but rather one of grand scale or magnitude; a defeat of “olympic” (small case o) stature. Such is their hate for this man of color at the helm of the United States; as if saying, how dare he occupy such a lofty place!

Poor President Obama – truly accommodating, centrist Obama – he is even criticized for just being a cheerleader: cheerleader for the economy, cheerleader for healthcare reform in America, and cheerleader for his adopted hometown, Chicago. Perhaps we should ask, aren’t our presidents really safer for the world (and for us) when they take the role of cheerleader-in-chief instead of that warmongering nickname, so proudly and often used, of commander-in-chief?

Cheerleading for Chicago in the Games’ quest was a gracious and honorable deed for President Obama, and not bringing success to that Midwestern city was certainly no defeat for him. However, leading the cheers for a faux economic recovery that is nothing but a momentous lie – even if with the best intention to instill confidence in the population – is far from an honorable thing for Obama… or for those he has chosen to counsel him. In our republic, we elect a president to run the executive branch of government to see that the will and welfare of the people are safeguarded. Not one of the three branches of this government, nor the government itself, has been entrusted by the Constitution to promote or defend any type of economic system here in the United States, much less one that expands to all confines in the world. Why, then, have prior and current administrations acted in a confabulatory and surreptitious manner to economically enslave our population for generations to come? Hasn’t it been done to defend the misdeeds of rapacious capitalism?

Both Fed and White House (Bush’s as well as Obama’s) have acted with the secrecy and demeanor of slave masters’ lackeys. Just as billions of dollars remain unaccounted for by the military in Iraq, multiples in hundreds of these billions have disappeared in the fog created by Bernanke and his peers at the Fed. We all know that it was the thieves in the US who brought about this global depression but… must Americans, without their consent or knowledge, make amends for a pernicious, unregulated capitalism that will forever keep them in debt… economically enslaved? Shouldn’t Americans be told that New Zealand is getting compensatory damages from the US at the rate of $3,000 per Kiwi-head? And that tax-tribute applies to other peoples throughout the capitalist world. The great failure of capitalism continues being kept secret from the American people!

Meantime, in the most persistent, lying ways, Bernanke, Obama and others in his court keep lying to the citizenry, showing glimmers of hope, silver linings in gloomy statistics that they choose to interpret in suitable, political ways. An executive branch made up of silver-liners and cheerleaders; and a Congress that should be ready to exert checks and balances to an executive ran amok, one unfortunately composed mainly of members at the beck and call of special interests, or simply true-to-form ignorami. And that brings us to pass judgment on an economic recovery that is nothing but a mirage.

On their way to the Land of Oz, along that yellow brick road, Dorothy and her three friends in need (of brain, of courage, of heart) showed their fear for lions and tigers and bears. We, Americans, exhibiting many needs – true democracy topping the list – and on our unpaved road to the Land of Economic Reality should be fearful of a leadership that misleads us with interpretations other than the truth, no matter how painful and sobering that truth happens to be. The people of this nation, at least those in the know, have had it with despicable cheerleaders… and silver-liners… and ignorami. And those are the people that unfortunately still lead us, those that hold the key to our destiny.

The economic recession (depression) is not over, folks… we have yet to hit bottom.